Herbert Hoover - U.S. Presidents - HISTORY.com Google Early Years Herbert Clark Hoover was born on August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa–the first U.S. president to be born west of the Mississippi River. He was the second of three children in a family of Quakers, who valued honesty, industriousness and simplicity. His father, Jesse Clark Hoover (1846-80), worked as a blacksmith, and his mother, Hulda Minthorn Hoover (1848-84), was a teacher. Orphaned at age nine, Hoover was raised primarily by an uncle in Oregon . Did You Know? On March 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a law that made "The Star-Spangled Banner," based on an 1814 poem by Francis Scott Key (1779-1843), America's national anthem. After attending Quaker schools, Hoover became part of the first class to enter Stanford University when it opened in 1891. He graduated four years later with a degree in geology and launched a lucrative career as a mining engineer.

Intelligent and hardworking, Hoover traveled all over the world to find valuable mineral deposits and establish business enterprises to extract the resources. His work made him a multimillionaire. On February 10, 1899, Hoover married his college sweetheart, Lou Henry (1874-1944), and the couple had two sons, Herbert (1903-69) and Allan Henry (1907-93). Humanitarian Work At the start of World War I (1914-18), Hoover dedicated his talents to humanitarian work. He helped 120,000 stranded American tourists return home from Europe when the hostilities broke out, and coordinated the delivery of food and supplies to citizens of Belgium after that country was overrun by Germany. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) appointed Hoover head of the Food Administration. Hoover encouraged Americans to reduce their consumption of meat and other commodities in order to ensure a steady supply of food and clothing for the Allied troops.

Once the war ended, Hoover, as head of the American Relief Administration, arranged shipments of food and aid to war-ravaged Europe. He earned worldwide acclaim for his humanitarian efforts, as well as thousands of appreciative letters from people across Europe who benefited from the free meals known as “Hoover lunches.” Hoover’s success earned him an appointment as secretary of commerce under President Warren Harding (1865-1923), and he continued in this position under President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933). During the fast-paced modernization of the 1920s, Hoover played an active role in organizing the fledgling radio broadcasting and civilian aviation industries, and also laid the groundwork for the construction of a huge dam on the Colorado River between Arizona and Nevada . (Named for Hoover, the dam opened in 1936.) The Great Depression In the U.S. presidential election of 1928, Hoover ran as the Republican Party’s nominee. Promising to bring continued peace and prosperity to the nation, he carried 40 states and defeated Democratic candidate Alfred E.

Smith (1873-1944), the governor of New York , by a record margin of 444-87 electoral votes. “I have no fears for the future of our country,” Hoover declared in his inaugural address. “It is bright with hope.” On October 24, 1929–only seven months after Hoover took office–a precipitous drop in the value of the U.S. stock market sent the economy spiraling downward and signaled the start of the Great Depression. Banks and businesses failed across the country. Nationwide unemployment rates rose from 3 percent in 1929 to 23 percent in 1932. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, homes and savings. Many people were forced to wait in bread lines for food and to live in squalid shantytowns known derisively as Hoovervilles . Hoover undertook various measures designed to stimulate the economy, and a few of the programs he introduced became key components of later relief efforts. However, Hoover’s response to the crisis was constrained by his conservative political philosophy. He believed in a limited role for government and worried that excessive federal intervention posed a threat to capitalism and individualism.

He felt that assistance should be handled on a local, voluntary basis. Accordingly, Hoover vetoed several bills that would have provided direct relief to struggling Americans. “Prosperity cannot be restored by raids upon the public Treasury,” he explained in his 1930 State of the Union address. Post-Presidential Years The Depression worsened throughout Hoover’s term in office, and critics increasingly portrayed him as indifferent to the suffering of the American people. By the time of the 1932 presidential election, Hoover had become a deeply unpopular–even reviled–figure across much of the country. Carrying only six states, he was soundly defeated by Democratic candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt , the governor of New York, who promised to enact a slate of progressive reforms and economic relief programs that he described as a New Deal for the American people. After leaving office, Hoover emerged as a prominent critic of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. He wrote articles and books outlining his conservative political views and warning about the dangers of investing too much power in the federal government.

Hoover returned to public service in the 1950s, serving on commissions aimed at increasing government efficiency for presidents Harry Truman (1884-1972) and Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969). By the time Hoover died at age 90 on October 20, 1964, in New York City , assessments of his legacy had grown more favorable. Noting that after Hoover left the White House the Great Depression continued for eight more years despite Roosevelt’s active intervention, some historians have argued for a more sympathetic appraisal of Hoover’s presidency. Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault . Start your free trial today. Tags Herbert Hoover Campaign Buttons search Herbert Hoover Campaign Buttons Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 - October 20, 1964) was the 31st President of the United States (1929–1933). Hoover, born to a Quaker family, was a professional mining engineer. He achieved American and international prominence in humanitarian relief efforts in war-torn Belgium and served as head of the U.S. Food Administration before and during World War I.

As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business under the rubric "economic modernization". In the presidential election of 1928, Hoover easily won the Republican nomination, despite having no elected-office experience. Hoover is the most recent cabinet secretary to be elected President of the United States, as well as one of only two Presidents (along with William Howard Taft) elected without electoral experience or high military rank. America was at the height of an economic bubble at the time, facilitating a landslide victory for Hoover over Democrat Al Smith. Hoover believed strongly in the Efficiency Movement Hoover, a globally experienced engineer, believed strongly in the Efficiency Movement, which held that the government and the economy were riddled with inefficiency and waste, and could be improved by experts who could identify the problems and solve them. He also believed in the importance of volunteerism and of the role of individuals in society and the economy. Hoover, who had made a small fortune in mining, was the first of two Presidents to redistribute their salary (President Kennedy was the other; he donated all his paychecks to charity).

When the Wall Street Crash of 1929 struck less than eight months after he took office, Hoover tried to combat the ensuing Great Depression with government enforced efforts, public works projects such as the Hoover Dam, tariffs such as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, an increase in the top tax bracket from 25% to 63% and increases in corporate taxes. These initiatives did not produce economic recovery during his term, but served as the groundwork for various policies incorporated in Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. After 1933 he became a spokesman in opposition to the domestic and foreign policies of the New Deal. In 1947 President Harry S. Truman brought him back to help make the federal bureaucracy more efficient through the Hoover Commission. The consensus among historians is that Hoover's defeat in the 1932 election was caused primarily by his failure to end the downward economic spiral, although his support for strong enforcement of prohibition was also a significant factor. Hoover is generally ranked no higher than average among US Presidents.

The presidency of Herbert Hoover (article) | Khan Academy The presidency of Herbert Hoover The presidency of Herbert Hoover When Herbert Hoover took office in 1929, he had no idea that the Great Depression was imminent. Email Overview Herbert Hoover was the 31st president of the United States. He served one term, from 1929 to 1933. Before becoming president, Hoover directed relief efforts to supply war-torn Europe and Russia during and after the First World War. After the 1929 stock market crash, the Hoover administration attempted to mitigate the negative effects of the Great Depression but was unable to significantly improve the economy. The early life of Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover was born in 1874 in Iowa, and was the first US president to have been born west of the Mississippi River. He worked as a mining engineer and an independent mining consultant, traveling the world and building a sizable personal fortune.

1 ^1 ​1​​start superscript, 1, end superscript When World War I broke out, Hoover became active in humanitarian work, and chaired the Commission for Relief in Belgium, which provided relief to that country as it faced a food crisis brought on by the German invasion in 1914. 2 ^2 ​2​​start superscript, 2, end superscript He also served as the director of the American Relief Administration, which was formed in 1919 and supplied relief to war-torn Europe and Russia. 3 ​3​​start superscript, 3, end superscript Photograph of Herbert Hoover. Herbert Hoover. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. During the First World War, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover head of the US Food Administration, which sought to reduce consumption and avoid wartime food rationing. Hoover went on to serve as Secretary of Commerce in the administration of Warren G. Harding. The presidency of Herbert Hoover Hoover won the Republican nomination in the 1928 presidential election after Republican President Calvin Coolidge announced that he would not be running for reelection.

He campaigned on Coolidge’s legacy of economic prosperity, pledging to support business, improve the quality of life of the nation’s farmers, and conduct a relatively isolationist foreign policy. Hoover was ambivalent about Prohibition, referring to it as a “great social and economic experiment,” but failing to back it wholeheartedly. 4 ^4 ​4​​start superscript, 4, end superscript Hoover won the election in a landslide against his Democratic opponent. Once in office, Hoover sought to reform the nation’s regulatory system. He was not an advocate of a laissez-faire economy, but instead encouraged the voluntary cooperation of the federal government and big business. At Hoover’s direction, the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department prosecuted gangsters, including Al Capone, for tax evasion. Hoover considered himself a progressive, and this was reflected in some of his administration’s policies, including the reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the organization of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the closing of tax loopholes for the wealthiest Americans, the expansion of national park lands, and the strengthening of protections for labor. Hoover’s most notable foreign policy achievements were in Latin America.

His administration laid the groundwork for what became the Good Neighbor Policy under Hoover's successor Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Good Neighbor policy explicitly disavowed military interventionism in hemispheric relations. Hoover himself embarked upon a goodwill tour in Latin America, traveling to ten countries and delivering pledges to reduce US political and military interference in the domestic affairs of Latin American countries. Hoover also successfully mediated a dispute between Chile and Peru over land. Hoover and the Great Depression In 1929, the stock market crash catalyzed the onset of the Great Depression . 5 ^5 ​5​​start superscript, 5, end superscript Though Hoover has gained a reputation for dithering in the face of economic peril, his administration actually pursued measures that helped lay the basis for Roosevelt’s New Deal. Hoover launched a massive public works program, part of which included funding for construction of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. His administration implemented stronger protections for labor and substantially increased federal subsidies for agriculture.

6 ^6 ​6​​start superscript, 6, end superscript Hoover also played a key role in passing the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932, which limited the activities of commercial banks in an attempt to stabilize the banking sector. However, many of these policies were not immediately effective, and some of the administration’s actions actually worsened the effects of the depression. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, for instance, which Hoover signed reluctantly, raised tariffs on thousands of imported goods and initiated a trade war between the United States and Europe, thereby exacerbating the global economic downturn. 7 ^7 ​7​​start superscript, 7, end superscript Although Hoover ran for reelection in 1932, his inability to mitigate the negative economic consequences of the Great Depression had made him widely unpopular. He lost the election to Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt. What do you think? Did Hoover’s early career effectively prepare him for the presidency? Why or why not? What were Hoover’s greatest accomplishments as president? What were his most consequential shortcomings? How would you characterize the Hoover administration’s response to the Great Depression?

Herbert Hoover | whitehouse.gov Air Force One Herbert Hoover Before serving as America's 31st President from 1929 to 1933, Herbert Hoover had achieved international success as a mining engineer and worldwide gratitude as "The Great Humanitarian" who fed war-torn Europe during and after World War I. Son of a Quaker blacksmith, Herbert Clark Hoover brought to the Presidency an unparalleled reputation for public service as an engineer, administrator, and humanitarian. Born in an Iowa village in 1874, he grew up in Oregon. He enrolled at Stanford University when it opened in 1891, graduating as a mining engineer. He married his Stanford sweetheart, Lou Henry, and they went to China, where he worked for a private corporation as China's leading engineer. In June 1900 the Boxer Rebellion caught the Hoovers in Tientsin. For almost a month the settlement was under heavy fire. While his wife worked in the hospitals, Hoover directed the building of barricades, and once risked his life rescuing Chinese children.

One week before Hoover celebrated his 40th birthday in London, Germany declared war on France, and the American Consul General asked his help in getting stranded tourists home. In six weeks his committee helped 120,000 Americans return to the United States. Next Hoover turned to a far more difficult task, to feed Belgium, which had been overrun by the German army. After the United States entered the war, President Wilson appointed Hoover head of the Food Administration. He succeeded in cutting consumption of foods needed overseas and avoided rationing at home, yet kept the Allies fed. After the Armistice, Hoover, a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration, organized shipments of food for starving millions in central Europe. He extended aid to famine-stricken Soviet Russia in 1921. When a critic inquired if he was not thus helping Bolshevism, Hoover retorted, "Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!" After capably serving as Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Harding and Coolidge, Hoover became the Republican Presidential nominee in 1928.

He said then: "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land." His election seemed to ensure prosperity. Yet within months the stock market crashed, and the Nation spiraled downward into depression. After the crash Hoover announced that while he would keep the Federal budget balanced, he would cut taxes and expand public works spending. In 1931 repercussions from Europe deepened the crisis, even though the President presented to Congress a program asking for creation of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to aid business, additional help for farmers facing mortgage foreclosures, banking reform, a loan to states for feeding the unemployed, expansion of public works, and drastic governmental economy. At the same time he reiterated his view that while people must not suffer from hunger and cold, caring for them must be primarily a local and voluntary responsibility. His opponents in Congress, who he felt were sabotaging his program for their own political gain, unfairly painted him as a callous and cruel President. Hoover became the scapegoat for the Depression and was badly defeated in 1932. In the 1930's he became a powerful critic of the New Deal, warning against tendencies toward statism.

In 1947 President Truman appointed Hoover to a commission, which elected him chairman, to reorganize the Executive Departments. He was appointed chairman of a similar commission by President Eisenhower in 1953. Many economies resulted from both commissions' recommendations. Over the years, Hoover wrote many articles and books, one of which he was working on when he died at 90 in New York City on October 20, 1964. The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association. For more information about President Hoover, please visit Hoover Timeline - The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum Hoover Timeline Herbert Clark Hoover August 10, 1874 Herbert Hoover was born in West Branch, Iowa, the second of three children on August 10, 1874. December 13, 1880 Herbert's father, Jesse Hoover, a blacksmith and farm implement store owner, died. February, 24, 1884 Hoover's mother, Hulda Minthorn Hoover, died.

November 10, 1885 November 10, 1885 Hoover left Iowa to live with his uncle John Minthorn in Newberg, Oregon, where he attended Friends Pacific Academy. September 1888 John Minthorn helped start the Oregon Land Company in Salem, Oregon where Hoover worked as an office boy while attending the Capital Business College. Hoover entered Stanford University as a member of its pioneer class. Hoover graduated from Stanford with a degree in geology. 1896 Hoover took a job as an office boy for California mining engineer Louis Janin and was promoted to an engineering position. February 1897 On Janin's recommendation, Hoover was hired by British mining firm of Bewick, Moering & Co., and sent to gold fields of Australia. February 1899 February 10, 1899 Hoover married Lou Henry, his college sweetheart and fellow geology student, in the parlor of her parents' home in Monterey, California. February 11, 1899 the Hoovers left for China, where Hoover had been assigned to serve as a mining consultant to the Chinese government.

The Hoovers were besieged in Tientsen, China during the Boxer Rebellion. December 18, 1901 Hoover became a partner in Bewick, Moering supervising the firm's worldwide operations. He became known as a "Doctor of Sick Mines." Herbert Hoover, Jr. was born in London. Allan Hoover was born in London. Hoover retired from Bewick, Moering and began free lance consulting. 1913 Herbert and Lou Hoover's English translation of De Re Metallica, a sixteenth century Latin text on mining, was published. 1914 August 3, 1914 The Hoover's helped Americans stranded in Europe at the beginning of World War I to return home. November 5, 1914 Hoover organized the Commission for Relief in Belgium, which provided food to four million civilians in Belgium and northern France. May 5, 1917 After the U.S. entered World War I, Hoover was appointed by President Wilson to be United States Food Administrator to coordinate production and conservation of food supplies. July 12, 1919 Hoover founded American Relief Administration which fed 17 million people in 21 countries in the aftermath of the war.

March 5, 1921 Hoover was appointed Secretary of Commerce by President Harding; he served in the Cabinets of both Harding and Coolidge. 1922 American Individualism is published, a book in which Hoover outlines the characteristics that made American society unique and successful. Son Herbert Hoover, Jr., married Margaret Eva Watson. April 27, 1927 The Mississippi River flooded over 20,000 square miles of land, killing more than 300 people and putting another 600,000 out of their homes. Hoover coordinates the relief efforts of eight government agencies, the Red Cross and 91 local communities. 1928 June 14, 1928 Hoover was nominated for president on the first ballot at the Republican Party National Convention in Kansas City. November 6, 1928 Hoover was elected President of the United States. November 19, 1928 Hoover began a seven week tour of Latin America and promised to establish policies that would make the U.S. a good neighbor. 1929 March 4, 1929 Herbert Hoover was inaugurated as 31st President of the United States.

June 15, 1929 After Hoover called a special session of Congress, the Agricultural Marketing Act was passed, which established a Federal Farm Board that worked to stabilize agricultural prices. October The Wall Street stock market crashed, which signaled the beginning of the Great Depression. November 19, 1929 Hoover began a series of meetings with business, labor and government leaders called the conference for Continued Industrial Progress in which he secured pledges to maintain current employment and wage levels. 1930 January 1930 Hoover instituted a vigorous public works program in which he authorized $635 million for construction projects. February 3, 1930 Hoover appointed Charles Evans Hughes Chief Justice of the Supreme court. June 17, 1930 Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff into law which set tariffs to historically high levels. July 21, 1930 Hoover combined all federal Veteran's services into one agency, the Veterans Administration. September 17, 1930 The Hoover Dam in Navada was dedicated, marking the start of construction. It was completed in 1936.

October 21, 1930 Hoover created the President's Emergency Committee for Employment, which promoted private sector responses to unemployment. 1931 March 3, 1931 President Hoover signed legislation designating The Star Spangled Banner as the national anthem. August 19, 1931 Hoover established the President's Organization on Unemployment Relief to stimulate and coordinate employment and relief activities. 1932 January 22, 1932 The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was created to make loans to struggling businesses. June 16, 1932 Hoover was nominated for president on the first ballot at the Republican Party National Convention in Chicago. July 28, 1932 Hoover ordered federal troops to clear from Washington, D.C., the Bonus Army that was occupying federal buildings and petitioning for an early cash payment of their bonus certificate due in 1945. November 8, 1932 Hoover lost his bid for re-election to Franklin D. Roosevelt. 1934 Hoover published The Challenge to Liberty, in which he warned that the fundamental principals of liberty were being undermined by fascism, Nazism, socialism, and the New Deal.

1936 October 19, 1936 Hoover was elected chairman of Boys' Clubs of America, a position he held until his death. March 17, 1937 Allan Hoover married Margaret Coberly in California. January 7, 1944 Lou Henry Hoover died.. 1946 March 17, 1946 Hoover began a world famine survey at President Truman's request. He traveled 35,000 miles through 38 countries over 57 days compiling projected food needs. 1947 July 17, 1947 President Truman appointed Hoover chairman of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, also known as the First Hoover Commission. 1953 September 29. 1953 President Eisenhower named Hoover to head the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, also known as the Second Hoover Commission. 1962 August 10, 1962 Hoover was joined by his friend Harry Truman and together they dedicated the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa.

Herbert Hoover Blog Herbert Hoover Born August 10, 1874 in West Branch, Iowa, Herbert "Bert" Hoover was the middle of three children whose parents were Quakers. His father, Jesse, was a blacksmith. After both parents died in the early 1880s, the children were separated and sent to live with different relatives. Herbert was sent to live with his uncle, Dr. Henry Minthorn, in Oregon. After quitting high school in order to work in his uncle's real estate office, Herbert Hoover began to think about a career in engineering. He began with the study of geology at Stanford University , with the idea of becoming a mining engineer. There he met Lou Henry, and they were married in 1899. The great engineer After graduation, Hoover worked for a San Francisco engineering firm, and later took a job with an English mining company to run their gold mines in Australia and China. At age 27, Hoover was made a partner in the company, and began to travel the world, visiting the company's mines and searching for new ones. Herbert Hoover traveled around the world five times in five years. The Hoovers had two sons during that time, Herbert Jr.

and Allan. In 1908, Herbert Hoover started his own engineering business. His company specialized in reorganizing failing companies, hunting for new mining prospects, and finding investors to pay for developing the best mines. Hoover's consulting firm employed 175,000 workers all over the world, with offices in England, France, Russia, San Francisco and New York City. He soon became known as the "Great Engineer." The great humanitarian Already a multi-millionaire in his early thirties, Herbert Hoover became interested in public service. In 1914, he put other men in charge of his mining business and gave all his time to Belgian relief during World War I. In May 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Hoover to come to Washington, D.C. , to serve as his wartime food administrator, which, once he accepted the position, Hoover insisted on doing without any salary. As food administrator, Herbert Hoover had absolute control over what American farmers produced, how much they were paid, what and how much produce went to the American army at home and abroad, as well as to the general public, and how much stores could charge customers. With World War I in full swing, the U.S.

would have to find enough food to feed itself and its European allies for a long time. Herbert Hoover urged American households to conserve food, and in so doing, more food was made available to send overseas. Even after the war was over in November 1918, Europe's need for food was as pressing as when the war was still being fought. The war had left European nations without enough food to last the winter. Hoover organized shipment of food for millions of starving people in central Europe, and even extended aid into Soviet Russia in 1921. For his efforts, he became an important wartime adviser to President Woodrow Wilson , who made Hoover a part of the American delegation to the conference of the Treaty of Versailles . America's Crisis Herbert Hoover served as secretary of commerce for seven years, under presidents Harding and Coolidge , and became the Republican presidential nominee in the Election of 1928 . He was elected by an overwhelming majority. During his first few months as president, Hoover pushed Congress to set aside money for national park land, to reform prisons, and provide better education on American Indian reservations.

He also urged Congress to pass the Agricultural Marketing Act, which helped farmers set up cooperatives, control surpluses, and keep the food supply steady. After just eight months in office, on October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed , fueling a growing depression that became the most severe economic crisis the United States had ever known, and second only to the Civil War as the greatest domestic crisis in the nation's history. Although Herbert Hoover has been blamed for the stock market crash, he, in fact, warned President Coolidge in 1925 about the dangers of excessive stock market speculation. He again expressed concern while running for president in 1928. After the crash, Herbert Hoover ordered federal departments to speed up construction projects, cut $160 million in taxes, and doubled the amount spent on public works. By 1933, one-fourth of the nation's workers were unemployed. In addition to the high unemployment, the American economy experienced slow economic growth and financial instability.

Hoover was criticized for his refusal to authorize large-scale relief programs that might have alleviated the nation's suffering and hunger, his unwillingness to use a significant amount of federal dollars to stimulate the nation's economy, and his failure to recognize the all-encompassing nature of the Great Depression. A president rejected Perhaps the most politically damaging event of Hoover's presidency was the Bonus March , staged by World War I veterans in 1932. Several years earlier, Congress had passed the Soldiers' Bonus Act, which granted veterans Adjusted Compensation Certificates, payable in 1945. In May 1932, the "Bonus Army" converged on the capitol to urge early redemption for the certificates. More than 17,000 desperate veterans gathered in Washington to force passage of the bill. Herbert Hoover had already made generous provisions for veterans and felt that the bill was a huge expense that wouldn't help the country's most needy. In July, the Bonus Bill was defeated in the Senate, although the government offered to pay the fare home for each veteran.

Thousands accepted the offer, but thousands more remained encamped across the Potomac from central Washington in a ramshackle shantytown, dubbed "Hooverville." Although the Bonus Army had behaved remarkably peacefully, the police were called in to evict the veterans. A riot broke out and Hoover ordered that federal troops be dispatched to contain the veterans. The commanding general, Douglas MacArthur , did much more than "contain", however, and ordered the use of tear gas, tanks, and bayonets, and commanded soldiers to set fire to the veterans' shacks. Several veterans and even an infant were killed in the chaos. Herbert Hoover never publicly criticized the general for his excessive conduct, and thus the American people blamed the president as well as MacArthur. Herbert Hoover was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Election of 1932 . Only six of the 48 states voted for Hoover. Hoover and Roosevelt did not get along.

Hoover strongly opposed Roosevelt's New Deal legislation, in which the federal government assumed responsibility for the welfare of the nation by maintaining a high level of economic activity - providing for the unemployed and elderly, prohibiting anti-social business practices, protecting natural resources, and developing the Tennessee Valley and other largely undeveloped regions. Roosevelt never consulted Hoover, nor did he involve him in government in any way during his presidential term. For all of his humanitarian efforts, Hoover is still seen by many as the most unpopular president in American history. The public, and especially the Democratic party, blamed Hoover for the Great Depression. He was so unpopular in fact, that 1936 presidential nominee Alfred M. Landon did not even want Hoover to give speeches in his behalf. Few Republicans wanted Hoover involved in party politics because of his negative image in the popular mind. A second chance at public service After Roosevelt's death in 1945, President Harry Truman invited Hoover to the White House, where he was asked to organize European war relief after World War II . In 1946 Hoover traveled to 38 countries, documented food needs, located surpluses, and arranged food shipments to countries in need.

In 1947, President Truman appointed Hoover the chairman of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, whose job it was to cut government waste and improve efficiency. Also, in 1947, Congress passed a bill renaming the Colorado River Dam "Hoover Dam." Hoover spent the last years of his life writing several books, including American Epic, about relief movements in Europe, The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson, about former president Wilson's experience in working on the Treaty of Versailles , plus an unpublished manuscript about failures in American foreign policy, called Freedom Betrayed. Beginning in the 1970s, Hoover's reputation began to improve. Most now argue that Hoover, in reality, could have done little to prevent or solve the Depression. Following his wife's death in 1944, Hoover resided in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. He died there at the age of 90 on October 20, 1964. He was buried in his birthplace in West Branch, Iowa. More than 75,000 people attended the funeral service. ---- Selected Quotes ---- Quotes by Herbert Hoover.

Regarding Great Depression While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced that we have now passed the worst and with continuity of effort we shall rapidly recover. Address to the United States Chamber of Commerce, May 1, 1930 Regarding Great Depression If, by the grace of God, we have passed the worst of this storm, the future months will be easy. If we shall be called upon to endure more of this period, we must gird ourselves for even greater effort, for today we are writing the introduction to the future history of civilization in America. The question is whether that history shall be written in terms of individual responsibility, and the capacity of the Nation for voluntary cooperative action, or whether it shall be written in terms of futile attempt to cure poverty by the enactment of law, instead of the maintained and protected initiative of our people. Speech at the Gridiron Club, 1931 Hoover and the Great Depression | PragerU Hoover and the Great Depression Primary tabs Lee Ohanian A new history of the Great Depression is emerging. One that acknowledges the role that government played in causing and prolonging it, and the constructive role that free enterprise could have played, if it were given the chance.

In this video, UCLA economist Lee Ohanian explains how Herbert Hoover, widely misunderstood as a champion of the free market, actually turned what should have just been a recession into a depression due to his mistrust of the market. Download Transcript View Transcript Mention the name Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of the United States, and you probably think “Great Depression.” Here’s how the usual narrative goes: The stock market crashes in October of 1929. Hoover, a Republican, refuses to intervene. Instead, he lets the free market deal with the problem and the economic downturn morphs into a catastrophic decline. Well, the Stock Market did crash in 1929 and the economic downturn that followed did lead into the Great Depression, but it wasn’t because Hoover was a small government man like his predecessor, Calvin Coolidge. It was just the opposite. My research shows that it was Hoover’s incessant meddling -- not the mistaken view that he did nothing -- that provoked the Great Depression. Hoover, a good man with magnanimous instincts, was a successful mining engineer before he got into government. He believed that almost anything could be engineered, and he brought that philosophy to the economic crisis of 1929.

As a result, he was the wrong man for the job at exactly the wrong time. For starters, Hoover distrusted the free market. He knew that unfettered competition forces companies to reduce prices; but, he believed, lower prices lead to lower wages. In November of 1929, shortly after the stock market swoon, Hoover called a meeting with the CEOs of major American industry. Henry Ford of Ford Motor, Alfred Sloan of GM, and Pierre Dupont of Dupont Chemicals led the group that met with Hoover. The President set down a very clear and unprecedented directive: 1) Despite the weakening economy, keep wage rates at current levels. 2) Minimize layoffs. If you must reduce manpower, do it through work sharing -- that is, have two workers work half a day each or every other day. In return for maintaining wage rates and sharing jobs, Hoover promised the CEO’s that he would convince workers to neither strike nor demand additional pay or benefits. He kept his promise. Labor agreed not to strike. Industry agreed not to cut wages. In fact, Henry Ford raised wages as a gesture of solidarity. The engineer, it seemed, had engineered the perfect solution. Only it didn’t work.

As 1929 moved into 1930 and 1931, prices for industrial goods declined. One reason was the economy-wide deflation brought on by the Federal Reserve’s tight money policy. People simply didn’t have money to buy goods or invest in companies. But another reason, and a big one, was the result of something else Hoover did -- his signing of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. That act, which raised tariffs on imports to the highest levels in 100 years, led America’s trading partners to retaliate by placing tariffs on American goods. With American exports cut in half, the prices of American industrial goods declined sharply. As the Depression deepened, industry asked Hoover for permission to cut wages, but Hoover refused. “If we cut wages, there will be hell to pay with unions,” he said. By the end of 1931, with the economy in shambles, industry broke their deal by cutting wages and increasing layoffs. But it was too late to stop the free fall. Business failure built on business failure.

Unemployment soared from 3.2% in 1929 to 23.6% in 1932. Hoover countered by vastly increasing government spending, offering a nine-point plan that included major public works projects like the Hoover Dam and the Los Angeles Aqueduct. He raised taxes on the top income bracket from 25% to 63%. He did everything he could think of to engineer the economy back to health except the one thing that might have worked -- let the free market heal itself. What should have been a couple of hard years turned into a decade long disaster. And what of the commonly-held view that Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt’s economic policies were so different? You can now see that view is also inaccurate. Both Hoover and FDR believed in forceful government intervention into the economy. I’m Lee Ohanian, Professor of Economics at UCLA, for Prager University. You Earned A Badge Course: Hoover and the Great Depression Join PragerU now to claim it E-mail * Herbert Hoover | Hoover Institution Mission/History Herbert Hoover The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a remarkable organization that was founded by an extraordinary individual, Herbert Hoover.

Orphaned at the age of ten, at seventeen, Hoover joined four hundred students at Stanford University for inaugural ceremonies that opened the university on October 1, 1891. After graduating in Stanford's pioneer class in 1895, he would go on to become a successful mining engineer, generous benefactor, well-known humanitarian, prominent statesman, and president of the United States. In 1914, Herbert Hoover was living and working in London, England, when World War I broke out in Europe. He immediately became involved with assisting American travelers who were fleeing the war zone. With the German invasion of the neutral nation of Belgium, Hoover was asked to create a private humanitarian relief agency to assist Belgium's civilian population, which was accustomed to importing 80 percent of its food. The German occupation and the Allied naval blockade threatened famine and death by starvation to this country's citizens. During this time, Hoover read, and was influenced by, an autobiography of Andrew White, a distinguished historian, diplomat, and the first president of Cornell University. White had assembled a vast collection of documents pertaining to the French Revolution that ultimately contributed to one of the best accounts of this historic event.

Hoover then realized that he was in a unique position to collect fugitive information about the Great War that was then unfolding. It was this idea and vision that would lead the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace into becoming the largest private repository of documents on twentieth-century political history. In 1917, the United States entered the war, and Hoover, by now a famous humanitarian hero, returned stateside and was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to become head of the newly created U.S. Food Administration. When the war ended in 1918, Hoover returned to Europe for almost a year as director-general of the American Relief Administration to organize the supply and distribution of food and relief materials to more than twenty nations affecting one-third of the population of Europe, thereby facilitating the emergence of stable economies in the war-torn region. By 1920, Hoover and his family had returned to his alma mater, building a handsome house on the Stanford campus. However, in 1921, President-Elect Warren Harding recruited Hoover to become secretary of commerce. While traditionally a lowly cabinet position, the popular Hoover quickly established himself as one of the most prominent people in American public life.

When President Calvin Coolidge succeeded President Harding, Herbert Hoover was asked to continue his service in the same capacity. In 1928, when President Coolidge declined to run for a second term of office, Herbert Hoover was urged to become the Republican candidate and was eventually elected as the 31st president of the United States. In his first year of office, an economic crisis ensued with the stock market crash of October 1929. The onslaught of the Great Depression led to Franklin D. Roosevelt's successful presidential campaign in 1932. Herbert Hoover and family returned to their Stanford home in 1933. In 1919, Herbert Hoover pledged $50,000 to Stanford University to support his Hoover War Collection. He was also personally responsible for most of the gifts during the early founding, as well as for decades thereafter. The collection flourished in the early years and in 1922 was renamed the Hoover War Library. While it was physically housed within the Stanford Library, the collection was kept separate. By 1926, it was legitimately described as the largest library in the world dealing with the Great War.

By 1929, the library contained 1.4 million items, and physical space became an issue during the troubling times of the Great Depression. Finally, in 1938, a building plan was unveiled for Hoover Tower. The tower, reaching a height of 285 feet, was completed in 1941--the fiftieth anniversary of Stanford University. By 1946, the agenda of the Hoover War Library had extended significantly to include research activities, and thus the organization was renamed the Hoover Institute and Library on War, Revolution and Peace. Herbert Hoover was now living in New York City and allowing his Stanford residence to be used by Stanford's president. He would later donate his home to the university for such use. Nonetheless, Hoover remained integrally involved in the Hoover Institute and Library as a significant benefactor, fund-raiser, and principal provider of guiding inspiration. Indeed, in 1956 a major funding campaign was launched, with Herbert Hoover leading the effort. The development of the enterprise was so prominent that in 1957 it was again renamed as the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, the name it holds today.

Prior to Hoover's death in 1964, he reflected on the Institution and its accomplishments, scope, importance, and purpose. He submitted a statement to the Board of Trustees of Stanford University in 1959 in which he stated: "This Institution supports the Constitution of the United States, its Bill of Rights and its method of representative government. Both our social and economic systems are based on private enterprise from which springs initiative and ingenuity.... Ours is a system where the Federal Government should undertake no governmental, social or economic action, except where local government, or the people, cannot undertake it for themselves.... The overall mission of this Institution is, from its records, to recall the voice of experience against the making of war, and by the study of these records and their publication, to recall man's endeavors to make and preserve peace, and to sustain for America the safeguards of the American way of life. This Institution is not, and must not be, a mere library.

But with these purposes as its goal, the Institution itself must constantly and dynamically point the road to peace, to personal freedom, and to the safeguards of the American system." - Herbert Hoover This statement, nearly four decades old, is robust, containing the essential ingredients that characterize the Hoover Institution of today. The pervading analytic demeanor present at the Institution emphasizes freedom (economic, political, individual) in the ultimate pursuit of prosperity and peaceful security, with skepticism of an ever-expanding role of government in the affairs of society. The Institution's overarching purpose is to Assemble the requisite sources of knowledge pertaining to, and to understand the causes and consequences of, economic, political, and social changes in societies, at home and abroad Analyze the effects of government actions relating to public policy Generate and disseminate ideas directed at positive policy formation using reasoned arguments and intellectual rigor, converting conceptual insights into practical policy initiatives judged to be beneficial to society Ideas have consequences, and a free flow of competing ideas leads to an evolution of policy adoptions and associated consequences affecting the well-being of society. The Hoover Institution endeavors to be a prominent contributor of ideas having positive consequences. There are hundreds of entities in the United States alone dedicated to brokering ideas related to public policy.

The Hoover Institution has important special qualities, including The Institution's own significant library and archival collections The superb community resources of Stanford University An academic character allowing for freedom of inquiry without a burdensome hierarchy A pronounced inclination to address the "big picture" by offering ideas having broad and sweeping applications and internally consistent implications across applications An interest in the policy process ongoing in Washington, D.C., coincident with a residence on the West Coast, allowing for a detached vision of the policy landscape for the purpose of accomplishing research leading to long-term policy development A diversity of scholarship that combines research ranging from basic to applied, from theoretical to empirical, and from abstract to descriptive A vitality of scholarship that effectively mixes differing disciplines engaging resident fellows with visiting scholars, academic thinkers with policy practitioners, and idea generators with media communicators Herbert Clark Hoover Search Herbert Clark Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, graduated as a mining engineer (1895, Stanford University) and made his fortune in mining but made a name for himself organizing international relief efforts during and after World War 1, work for which he won the inaugural Hoover Medal.

Share ASME getmedia/987079a0-ef70-4c44-8e71-2c768b417b48/Herbert_Clark_Hoover-Ethics-60th.jpg.aspx?width=60&height=60&ext=.jpg Herbert Hoover was the first president to have a telephone on his desk. Though it might be a stretch to call someone of his generation an "early adopter," the "Great Engineer," whose presidency fell prey to the Crash of 1929, successfully battled famine during two world wars using every tool at his disposal. Born on August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa, Hoover lost his father at age six, and his mother, a Quaker minister, died three years later, but not before instilling within her son the Quaker values that would inform both his professional and political careers: pacifism, a devotion to reason, charity, and service. Hoover went to live with relatives in Oregon and attended the Friends Pacific Academy. After graduation he worked at the Oregon Land Company and studied business at night.

This early training later served Hoover well, once his interest in math and the urgings of a mining engineer, led him to Stanford University, where he juggled geology courses with summer stints working for the U.S. Geological Survey. He graduated with a degree in geology in 1895, and after mining jobs in California and New Mexico, went in 1897 to mine gold in West Australia for the British firm Bewick, Moreing Company . His engineering and technical problem-solving skills propelled him into management, and after three years he was asked to take over the firm's interests in China. Stopping home in the U.S. to marry his Stanford sweetheart, Lou Henry, Hoover and his wife set sail for China, where his mining expertise led to his promotion to junior partner. But it was the role he played during the Chinese Boxer Rebellion of 1900 that launched him into a philanthropic career that would be his most satisfying. When the uprising, an insurrection to cleanse China of all that was foreign, trapped the Hoovers and hundreds of other foreigners in Tianjin, Hoover ran the distribution of food and water as well as the building of barricades.

The siege lasted roughly two months until foreign relief forces arrived and the Hoovers escaped back to London. Hoover returned to Bewick and Moerining's and stayed there until 1908 when he formed his own engineering firm. The business flourished thanks to innovative extraction techniques used in the silver, lead, and zinc mines of New South Wales, Burma, and Russia. By the time World War I broke out, Hoover's net worth, estimated at $4 million, had him ready to give back. The opportunity to serve, core to his Quaker ideals, came in 1914, when World War I broke out and thousands of Americans were stranded in London. Tapped by the U.S. Embassy, Hoover organized food and shelter for the expats and loans to fund their trips home. The success of this effort won Hoover his next role, leading the relief effort mounted to feed the Belgians, who, while neutral in the conflict, were living under German occupation. Funded entirely by donations of over $1 billion, the Commission for Relief of Belgium kept some 11 million people from starving, an accomplishment he termed, "The greatest charity the world has ever seen." The Hoover Medal Once the U.S.

entered the war, Hoover was deployed by President Woodrow Wilson to run the United States Food Administration . He initiated a food conservation campaign to convince Americans to do their part by rationing their bread and sugar. The food surplus fed the American armies and, after the war, was used by the Hoover-run American Relief Administration to feed people throughout Europe—even the Germans and Russian Bolsheviks. "Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed," he said of the controversial aid, espousing a Quaker social activism that earned him inclusion on The New York Times' "Ten Most Important Living Americans." Hoover's relief work on behalf of the Belgians and after the War also won him the inaugural Hoover Medal , funded by Conrad N. Lauer, "to recognize outstanding civic or humanitarian service rendered by a member of the profession." A career in politics seemed inevitable, as the engineer-turned-global problem solver was next made Commerce Secretary by Warren G. Harding in 1920 and again by his successor Calvin Coolidge. But his focus on eliminating waste and inefficiency in business bore the mark of an engineer, particularly his push for standardization of consumer products from paper to nuts and bolts and window frames. His work to expand U.S.

international trade—by opening Commerce Department offices abroad—made for a strong platform for his eventual 1928 presidential run. Hoover won, but sadly, the times and over-speculation in the stock market—fueled by ungoverned private banking practices he abhorred—conspired against him. In October 1929 after his March inauguration, the stock market crashed, and, slow to provide federal aid to the millions Americans who lost their jobs and homes in the ensuing depression, Hoover was blamed, and a pall fell over his presidency that obscured his achievements. He is credited with the engineering of the Grand Coulee Dam and the San Francisco Bay Bridge as well as many other public works projects. Being the good Quaker, he strongly advocated for international disarmament, sought prison reform, and appointed two Quakers to run the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in part, to improve schools and health care. Still when Hoover ran for re-election against the Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932, he lost in every state but six. Ironically, it took the guns of World War II to rehabilitate him. Once again he organized famine relief for Belgium, Holland, Finland, and Poland.

And at President Harry S Truman's request, he created a massive food program that kept several hundred million Europeans from starving. Back in the political establishment's good graces, Hoover was tasked in 1947 with reviewing federal government operations for inefficiencies and redundancy. Many of the Hoover Commission 's 280 recommendations were taken, prompting President Eisenhower in 1953 to ask him to undertake an analysis of federal government policies. Hoover died on October 20, 1964, at 90, having summed up his service to the people of the world for half a century: "Being a politician is a poor profession. Being a public servant is a noble one." Marion Hart is an independent writer. Being a politician is a poor profession. Being a public servant is a noble one. President Herbert Hoover

Question: A professional mining engineer, who was the President of the US at the start of the Great Depression?
Answer: Herbert Hoover